Improvement in preventing mildew and decay in sails, awnings, tents



dinited git-ates flaunt dtjhlire.

WILLIAM A. 'TORREY, OF MOUNT CLAIR-NEW JERSEY.

Letters Patent 1w. 102,450, dated April 26, I870.

IMPROVEMENT IN PREVENTING- MILDEW AND DECAY IN SAILS, AWN IN GS, TENTS,

- TARPA'ULINS, AND OTHER ARTICLES AND FABRICS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and part of the same.

To all whom it may cone-era.-

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM A. TORREY, of Mount Glair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Proccss for Preventing Mildew and Decay in Sail-Cloths, Tarpaulins, Awnings, Tents, Hammocks, Coal-Bags, and other similar articles and fabrics made of cotton, flax, hemp, or equivalent fibrous material; and Ihereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same.

There is a large class of articles, such as sails, awnings, tents, tarpaulins, coal-bags, hatch-covers, and the like, made of woven fibrous material, which are frequently injured or entirely destroyed by mildew, rot, or fermentation, from being exposed to water or moist air in the various situations in which they are employed.

The object of my invention is to preserve such articles by means of a cheap and ez rsily-applied process.

To this end my invention consists in the application of carbolic acid, (phenol,) or'the nearly-related compounds of crew], rosol, 850., to such articles, so as to impregnate the fibers of which thcyare composed, and thereby entirely prevent mildew and decay.

The remarkable power of carbolic acid to prevent all fungons growths, such as mildew, and to preserve organic matters and prevent decay, is well known, but

it was not known that it would adhere with suflicient tenacity to fibrous materials, when I exposed to air, rain, and moisture, to preserve them.

By experiments I have established the 'fact that,

after a slight impregnation of carbolic acid, sail-cloth,

duck, canvas, gunny-cloth, osnaburg, and similar fabrics may be exposed to dampness, rain, and thevarious influences of the weather, such as required in the ordinary use of the articles enumerated, without injury from mildew or decay.

The following description will enable any one skilled in the art to which my invention relates to make and use the same. 4

A convenient mode of applying myinvention is to dip the articles to be preserved in a solution of carbolic acid, in. water or other solvent, made by dissolving one part of the acid in from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five parts of water or liquid, leaving the fabric in the solution for a suflicient time for the solution to fully enter the pores of the fibers.

The impregnation of the article with the liquid may be aided by exhaustion and pressure, as applied in dyeing and other processes, or by the aid ofboiling and steaming in the ordinary way of saturating cloth with liquids.

After saturation, the article should be dried without exposure to a high degree of heat, such as would drive off the catholic acid or injure the fabric;

Instead of using a solution in water or other liquid, to impregnate the fabric with the carbolic acid, the acid may be vaporized in a close vessel or chamber, and the fabric impregnated by exposure for asnificient time to the fumes or-vapors of the acid, either, alone or mixed with steam. Y

Articles treated by my process mayafterwards be -.painted, dyed, starched, varnished, or used without any other treatment; or the article may be first paiilted, dyed, starched, coated, or varnished, and afterward subjected to the treatment with carbolic acid; or they carbolicacid may be combined with dyes, paints, varnishes, or other coating, and in that form applied ,to the fabric or articleto be preserved. 1

If, after long use, the preservative action of the process should be at all impaired, it may be repeated.

I am aware that tar-oil and similar tarry products 1 from which carbolic acid may be obtained have been applied tosome of the fabrics herein named, but they have proved almost useless in practice, owing to the presence of offensive and injurious substances, mixed with such as would alone be of value.

In order to more perfectly impregnate the fiber,

carbolic acid may be reduced byand mixed with naphtha, alcohol, or other similar volatile fluids, since carbolic acid has a great affinity for them, and the article so treated will soon become dry by evaporation of the naphtha or other volatile fluids.

Having thus described myinvention,

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-.- H

1. The process herein described,'for preventing mildewand decay in sail-cloth, awnings, and other articles and fabrics, such as hereinabove named, by imprcgnatingsuch articles with carbolic acid or its re lated compounds, and then drying them as set forth.

2.- The improved articles herein described, made by the process set forth.

WILLIAM A. momm Witnesses: v

Jumus SOHENOK, -A. O. BENEDICT, Jr. 

